Expansion waistbands for garments



Oct. 25, 1955 s, AXLYER 2,721,330

EXPANSION WAISTBANDS FOR GARMENTS Filed Aug. 11, 1952 3nventor attorney United States Patent EXPANSION WAISTBANDS FOR GARMENTS Samuel E. Axler, Denver, Colo.

Application August 11, 1952, Serial No. 303,727

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-237) This invention relates to a waistband and pocket construction for articles 'of clothing, and more particularly for womens skirts and slacks. The principal object of the invention is to provide an elastic expansible waistband so constructed that the expansion thereof and the elements allowing for expansion are entirely concealed so that the article will give the appearance of a smartly tailored-to-size garment, and yet will allow the same size of garment to be used for a plurality of differing waist measurements without change.

Another object of the invention is to provide a neat, attractive, and efiicient pocket construction for garments which will also serve as a belt loop for holding a belt in place on the garment if desired, in which the belt loop will appear as a pocket fiap when no belt is worn and in which the pocket construction will be an element of the expansible waistband.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a front view of the upper portion of a garment, such as a skirt or slacks, illustrating the improved expansible waistband and pocket applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, fragmentary view, illustrating the left hand pocket of the garment swung open to show the interior construction thereof;

Fig. 3 is a similar view, illustrating the pocket closed, with an improved belt loop ornament thereon in the open positon; and

Fig. 4 is an inside fragmentary view of the pocket of Figs. 2 and 3.

The garment illustrated is formed with two similar, though opposite, panels joined together by a front center seam 11, and stitched to two back panels 12 by side seams 13. The back panels 12 are joined by a midback seam 15. Each of the back panels 12 is provided with a conventional belt loop 16.

The entire novelty of this invention is embodied in the structure of the upper portions of the two front panels 10. The center half of the upper portion of each front panel 10 is permanently stitched to a non-flexible front section of waistband 17 which extends across the upper mid-portion of the garment and across the front center seam 11. The remainder of the upper portion of each front panel 10 is not attached to the waistband section 17 and is cut to form a pocket front portion 20, there being a loose, gathered hinge or fold 19 joining the pocket front portion 20 to the remainder of the panel 10. The pocket front portions 20 are cut back, as illustrated, to provide easy access for the hands and to form arcuate ornamental pocket edges which extend downwardly along the side seams 13 for a distance sufficient to allow convenient pocket access and are then stitched into the side seams 13 down to the bottom of the garment. The points where the pocket edges enter the side seams are reinforced by reinforcing cross stitching, as shown at 24. The pocket front portions 20 of the front panels 10 are supported by means of buttons 21 positioned to be buttoned into horizontally elongated buttonholes 22 formed in the upper corners of the pocket front portions. The buttons are stitched on pocket back pieces 23 one .of which is stitched into each of the side seams 13 upward- 1y from the cross stitching 24. The pocket back pieces 23 extend inside the pocket front portions 20 and are out along their inner and lower edges to a convenient pocket shape.

The pocket back pieces 23 form the inside walls of the two pockets. The outside walls of the two pockets are formed by inner lining pieces 20' which are stitched on the inside faces of each of the pocket front portions 20 by means of a peripheral line of stitching 18. The inner lining pieces 20 are cut to conform to the shape of the pocket back pieces 23 and are stitched to the latter by means of edge stitching 25 to form the complete pocket.

The remainder of the garment waistband comprises a longer non-elastic waistband section 26 which extends across and is secured to the inside of the tops of the two back panels 12. The extremities of the waistband section 26 are secured to relatively short elastic tapes 27 which are attached to the opposite extremities of the front section of the waistband 17.

The extremities of the band section 26 extend substantially one-half the width of the pocket back pieces 23 and are secured to the latter. The remainder of the Width of the pocket back pieces 23 is loosely gathered, as shown at 28, in front of the two elastic tapes 27 to conceal the latter. There is sufficient fullness in the gathers 28 to allow full stretching of the elastic tapes and there is sufficient length in the button holes 22 and in the front folds 19 to allow the buttons 21 to move freely with the stretching movements of the elastic tapes 27.

Each pocket is provided with an ornamental flap or tab 29. The tabs 29 are stitched to and extend upwardly from between the pocket front portions 20 and their inner lining pieces 20 and each is provided with a female snap fastener 30 adjacent its free extremity. A male snap fastener 31 is mounted in the pocket front portion 20 of each front panel 10 directly below the buttonhole 22 to receive one of the fasteners 30.

The tabs 29 serve a triple purpose: first, they provide design ornaments for the garment; second, they conceal the buttons 21 and the buttonholes 22; and third, they provide front belt loops which cooperate with the back belt loops 16 to support a belt about the garment if desired.

It can be readily seen that the waistband of' the garment of Fig. 1 may be easily stretched to larger sizes until the fullness of the gathers 28 and the fold 19 have been entirely taken up and until the buttons 21 have reached the outer extremities of the elongated buttonholes 22. These alterations in size of the waistband do not affect the appearance of the garment in any way since all variations are accommodated by the pocket back pieces 23 which are entirely concealed from view.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied, within the scope of the appended claim, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

A combined pocket and expansible waistband for garments comprising: a non-elastic pocket back piece secured to a side portion of said garment and extending forwardly behind a front portion thereof and forming the back wall of said pocket, said pocket back piece being fiat for a portion of its width and being gathered for the remaining portion of its width and being secured to the front portion of said garment so as to allow expansion of said pocket, and secured to the side portion of said garment and said waistband; a non-elastic waistband portion extending partially across and being secured to the back of the flat portion of said back piece and terminating at said gathered portion; an elastic waistband secured at one of its extremities to the latter terminus of said nonelastic Waistband and extending across the back of the gathered portion of said back piece and being secured at its other extremity to the front portion of said garment, the elasticity of said elastic band acting to resilient- 1y contract the gathered portion of said back piece; a front lining piece secured along one of its side edges and its bottom edge to said pocket back piece and extending across the front of the gathered portion of said back piece; a pocket front portion secured over the front of said front lining piece and provided with a horizontallyextending elongated button hole; a button secured to the flat portion of said pocket back piece adjacent the gathered portion thereof and adapted to engage in said button hole, said button hole being sufficiently long to allow said pocket front piece to move relative to the flat portion of said pocket back piece for a distance equal to the full extension of the gathered portion of said back piece; and a flap secured to the upper edge of said pocket front piece and depending over said elongated button hole to conceal the latter.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 502,253 Harris et al. July 25, 1893 1,033,714 Lewis July 23, 1912 1,058,039 Corn Apr. 8, 1913 2,252,519 Ottusch Aug. 12, 1941 2,504,718 Nagel Apr. 18, 1950 

